FORT BRAGG — The Lower Lake Trojans stayed close for a half before falling 26-14 to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves in North Central League I varsity football action Friday night in Fort Bragg.
Fort Bragg (2-0 league, 3-2 overall) had a 13-0 lead after one quarter but Lower Lake (0-2, 0-5) closed to 13-8 by halftime on quarterback Richard Tucker”s 4-yard run and a Tucker pass to Alphonsos Daniels on the conversion.
The second half got off to a rough start for the Trojans, who were penalized 15 yards for arriving late to the field. They received the kickoff and started deep in their own end of the field. After dropping a third-down pass that would have resulted in a first down, Lower Lake gambled on fourth down inside its own 30-yard line.
“And we didn”t make it,” Lower Lake coach Mike Huffman said.
Fort Bragg took over on downs and eventually scored to go up 19-8.
The Timberwolves added an insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter before the Trojans scored again on a 15-yard pass from Tucker to tight end Jeff Davis.
“I think we gave it a quality effort,” Huffman said when asked to rate his team”s overall performance. “We played pretty soundly, but our offensive line is just really young and we made some crucial mistakes on third-and-short runs. We can”t go backward and we were going backward.”
Lower Lake didn”t commit a turnover but did force two Fort Bragg turnovers. The Trojans also had five sacks.
Tucker completed 6 of 14 passes for 99 yards.
“They”re giving me a good effort, but things just didn”t go our way,” Huffman said.
Lower Lake hosts undefeated St. Helena (2-0, 5-0) next week.
